Planning Commission backs ordinance to ease land‑use limits for massage businesses
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Summary
The San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously to amend the planning code to align massage establishment land‑use controls with other health services, widen where massage businesses can operate and add enforcement safeguards including a three‑year restriction on personal‑service reuse after violations.
The San Francisco Planning Commission on Thursday approved changes to the planning code meant to make it easier for massage practitioners and small businesses to open and operate while retaining public‑health safeguards.
Veronica Flores of the Planning Department told commissioners the ordinance would generally permit massage businesses where other health services operate, streamline approvals for ground‑floor uses and keep larger, multi‑employee establishments subject to oversight. "The ordinance will regulate massage establishments more consistently with health services," Flores said, and the Department of Public Health would continue to review licensing and business operations.
Paul Monquet, speaking for Supervisor Ronan’s office, described the measure as a response to zoning restrictions that have limited the industry. "This legislation seeks to make it easier for local massage practitioners and small business owners to open and operate massage establishments in San Francisco," he said, adding the change is designed to keep enforcement tools that target illicit activity. Dario Jones of the Planning Department’s Zoning and Compliance team recounted joint inspections in 2006 that found suspect establishments and said stronger DPH oversight and a proposed three‑year prohibition on personal‑service uses at locations closed for violations will help enforcement.
Public commenters split along two lines: business owners and workers urged relief to help viable practitioners amid steep rents, while residents urged caution because of past illicit activity in some establishments. Linda Chapman, a resident who said she had seen illicit activity years ago, urged the commission to keep strict controls.
Commissioners pressed staff about floor‑level cutoffs in neighbor commercial (NC) and C‑3 districts and whether medical buildings and gyms would be unintentionally excluded. Staff said the draft would be corrected so that massage uses remain at least as permissive as today in C‑2 and C‑3 districts, with sole practitioners treated as health services and permitted on any floor where health services are allowed.
Commissioners signaled a preference for an incremental approach to liberalizing land use while strengthening enforcement: Commissioner Tanner said he favored a slower relaxation of rules, and Commissioner Diamond urged keeping the conditional use requirement above second floors in some districts as an enforcement check. The motion to approve the ordinance with staff‑recommended modifications carried unanimously, 7–0.
Next steps: the commission’s approval forwards the recommendation to the Board of Supervisors and implements staff’s clerical corrections and zoning‑table updates described at the hearing.
